Just thought I would “record” a few things here that I have noticed with the CI for my own personal records.
I have been wearing my CI in mostly a “controlled” environment where I control what I hear and what I don’t (aka home). I have worn it out in public also. It is harder wearing it in public because once there’s more than one sound in the mix it all becomes so constant and sounds the same. Whereas at home I can control when I hear things and the volume level on the TV, laptop, etc. It’s easier figuring out what I’m hearing when I’m in a controlled environment.
I would say about 95% of everything sounds the same (it was 98% last week 😉 ). However, when I listen to very familiar songs I’m starting to notice an extra layer to sounds that I never noticed with my hearing aids. For example, I never noticed a specific beat pattern in one of my favorite songs until now. Another song–I used to hate this one brief part of it when all the instruments were playing (it all kind of clashed) and I would actually speed forward through that part. Now, I enjoy that part.
Funny thing. When I watch TV shows on hulu.com, I can tolerate “listening” to cartoons (e.g. The Simpsons, etc.) better than I can tolerate live actors. For some odd reason I find it easier to follow the pattern of speech with cartoon shows than shows with live actors. Half of the time I end up muting the TV/laptop when I watch live actors, because it’s so hard to tolerate and I want to enjoy the show!
What do I mean when I say that it’s easier to follow the pattern of speech? When I watch the subtitles while listening I can kind of tell when there are pauses between words. It does all sound the same and I do have to work hard to try to follow the pattern.
I’ve never been a fan of cartoon type shows. I don’t think I’ve ever watched this many cartoon shows until this past week.
No clue why. Anyone know?
I am still struggling a bit when it comes to tolerating sounds in general.
Life Is About Creating Yourself 
I think it’s because with cartoons, every sound are artificially added and controlled and in most case the sounds wouldn’t naturally clash as they would in a live action show, where the background noise would clash with the vocals and you can’t really control that. I enjoy watching cartoons as well, and I did feel like I understand the voices pretty well compared to live action. Sorry for posting a lot on your blog today. I’m bored and I had nothing to do so I go through my usual list of websites often. Lol.
I wonder if it’s because cartoons are targeted towards kids, too, so the dialogue is on a slower, simpler, clearer level? I don’t know if that makes sense at all, but I’d figure shows for kids would have better enunciated, spaced-out words. I could be wrong, too, if you’re watching more adult cartoons, or kid live shows rather than adult live shows 😛